...and another guitarist, using MIDI to prop up chops quickly showing signs of age.

For the stuff I can't play, I've begun the trudge away from synths and into the soft world. Take a listen to this jazz nylon guitar , and this steel string guitar . It's Edirol's SuperQuartet. It's a plugin for Cubase or Cakewalk, and it's pretty cheap (I paid $175).

While you're at it, listen to these solo strings . I will agree that synths generally sound like synths, and that folks have learned to treat pretend-a-orchestras from ROM-based synths as reasonable sources of sustain background sound in popular music, but I'd say we're getting close to the point where we don't have to settle for that anymore.

For me, live instruments are definitely prefered. Synths are fine for what they do - my personal tastes in electronic keyboards haven't, unfortunately, made it much past the Hammond B-3. Sample-based software is getting better, though, and for us huddled-in-a-corner-working music composers, it's close enough to the real thing to make it fun!